I teach this course once a year to the current MSE class and bring into it, what I see as, the current issues that MSE students should know. The most recent class focused on agility. Another class years ago focused on robots and artificial intelligence. The classes in between have been all the things that were important in the current domain to relate to the opportunity to use technology to make a difference. For the last couple of years leading up to last time, Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) was a big part of that course.

I view the MSE 433 course as technology as a strategic weapon. I try to make the students understand

• the impact of technology on the way a business operates,
• what each of their roles and responsibilities are right now,
• that the most important technology is information technology, and
• what their role and responsibilities are right now.